Protected
by maureenbrown
Summary: Evie finds out that Doug has been using her only for her looks, and her friends show her how much she means to them. One-shot, Malvie with Jaylos/Jarlos.


A/N: Well, this was awfully rushed, I don't fancy the ending. That's alright. I don't love Malvie as much as I love Mal/Lonnie, but it's a close bet. R&R! :P

x-x-x

Evie muffles her sobs in her pillow. She hopes Mal, Jay and Carlos don't come back soon from whatever they're doing, she doesn't have the energy to fake anything or get up.

Evie lets out an embarrassing wail as she retracts herself from the pillow. It's covered in makeup stains and that makes Evie burst into more tears.

Of course, her luck is just as awful as her day was today. The door swings open and someone steps in.

"Evie?" A concerned voice asks. At least it's Carlos, who is the most trustworthy person to her (not that she doesn't love her other friends).

She drags the pillow away from her face to see him and his mouth drops open.

In a second, Carlos is sitting next to her with his arm draped around her protectively. She cries more, nestling her head in his chest as they lay back on the bed. She imagines Jay bursting in through the door and getting mad instantly, accusing Carlos of cheating on him, and it's enough to almost make her laugh.

Carlos plays with Evie's hair, smoothing it down then twirling his lithe fingers through her curls. "What happened?" He asks quietly.

"Doug." She manages bitterly. God, even the name sounds like a poisoned apple on her tongue.

Carlos looks confused. "What'd he do?"

"He used me for my looks to get more attention." Evie explains.

Carlos' grip on her tightens. "Oh, E… That complete…" He trails off helplessly.

"Relax, I've got it covered." A melancholy smile makes its way onto her lips.

"Do I even wanna know?" Carlos grins.

Evie shakes her head and lets out a broken laugh.

Carlos sweeps down and kisses her gently on the top of her head and Evie is glad to have a best friend like him.

There's a knock on the door before Jay steps in. He isn't normally so polite, so she's assuming he was eavesdropping before.

Jay's gaze flicks to the two on the bed and Carlos opens his mouth to protest. He knows his jealous boyfriend too well. "Get out, C." He smiles gently at Carlos. "Mal is going batty in the hall and you can control her better than me."

Carlos crawls out of the bed after giving Evie one last squeeze and practically skips over to his boyfriend. He gives him a short kiss on the lips that makes Evie's heart pound dangerously, she and Doug used to do that. She forces herself to look away.

Carlos walks out the door, beaming, his step lighter than before.

Jay replaces him on the bed, sliding next to her and wrapping his muscled arm around her shoulder. "Let me guess, Carlos babied you?" Jay says his name with so much adoration it's overwhelming.

"Kinda. I liked it though." Evie says. Talking to Jay is so easy, and she loves to do it. It's like a missing puzzle piece being put back together when she lays in his arms (but not in the romantic way, god no. She spent too much time matchmaking Jay and Carlos to think like that).

"I don't really know how to do that," Jay starts awkwardly. "So I'm just gonna tell you how it is."

Evie nods, preparing herself for another one of his inspiration speeches.

"He's a complete idiot for doing that, obviously. But think of it this way: he chose you specifically. You're the strongest, most gorgeous girl to him, which is why he used you. He wanted to bring you down a few pegs so that another girl could go to him. He's horrible, but he has a method to his madness. What I'm saying, is that if you pick yourself up and pretend like you don't care, he'll have lost." Jay explains.

Another tear trickles out of her eye, Evie's shocked that Jay cares for her this much. "How did you know all that?" She asks.

"Tourney." The boy replies with a laugh, and Evie giggles along.

She hugs him tightly, and he holds her back, and Evie feels _safe_.

Then, Mal disrupts them by swinging open the door. "Jay, beat it." She says breathlessly. Her hair is mussed like she's been fighting.

Jay raises her eyebrow, then climbs out of the bed after patting Evie on the shoulder. She feels cold without the body warmth and she huddles under her blankets.

Evie can see outside the door, where Carlos is waving his arms frantically and apologizing while Jay just shrugs nonchalantly, then pins him to the wall and makes out with him there in the hallway.

Mal plops herself onto the bed in front of Evie after kicking the door shut with her foot. "Good job, I couldn't even tell Doug was Doug." Mal says, talking about the curse that Evie set on him (she kind of stole Mal's spellbook, but if the purple-haired girl hadn't figured it out already, she wasn't going to bring it up).

Mal takes Evie's shaky hands in her still ones, gazing into Evie's deep, brown eyes. "You know you're _so_ much better than him, right?" She asks levelly.

Evie thinks back to Carlos and Jay and their conversations before putting on a brave face and nodding. "Yeah." Evie confirms, her voice sounding more put together now that she's more confident in herself.

"Now there's my Evie."

 _My_. The word is like an imprint in her brain.

Evie looks down to their hands clasped together shyly, pale fingers intertwined with black and blue nail polish respectively. "Thank you, Mal." She says genuinely.

Mal snorts. "You act like I never would've done this anyways."

Evie shrugs. "I mean, I know we're best friends, but back on the Isle…"

"The past is past!" Mal exclaims.

"Forgive, forget?" Evie quotes their trademarked song with a tiny smile and Mal giggles.

"Yeah, that's it."

Then, Mal scoots closer, pulling Evie's hands into her lap. "But really… Do you still like that?" Her tone is self-deprecating, and Evie wishes she'd never said anything.

"No, no, no! Mal, I don't, I really don't, and it was stupid of me to bring up some petty stuff that happened on the Isle. We were different people back then and I know-"

Evie gets cut off when Mal leans forward and presses a tiny kiss to the corner of her mouth. She scoots back, registering Evie's expression.

Now _that_ certainly crossed the friends border.

"Umm… Mal… What about Ben?" She asks. Really, she's not rejecting Mal, not at all. Evie had always felt attracted to her to a certain extent, but she was strictly supposed to like boys. Her mother had never said she could like a girl, but Evie found that besides Jay and Carlos, not a lot of people in Auradon were openly out.

Mal just scoffs. "I broke up with him a week ago, E."

The blue-haired girl chides herself in her insolence. "Of course you did." Evie drawls with an eye roll before pressing a timid kiss to Mal's cheek.

The other girl smiles at her and she grins back. Evie feels like she does when she's safe in Jay or Carlos' arms, safe, but multiplied. Protected is the word. Mal will protect her, not that she needs protection. Mal knows that and she loves it.

Mal tackles her onto the bed and places kisses all over her face and Evie laughs. Yeah, she thinks she loves her protector.


End file.
